Gloucester Mail Centre: THE COMMUNICATION Workers Union (CWU) campaign to fight plans to close Gloucester Mail Centre has forced Royal Mail to abandon its proposal to move work from Gloucester to Swindon... By Chris Moore, Gloucestershire Socialist Party

LORD GOLDSMITH, Blair's former attorney-general, has a new job at a US law firm on a salary of about £1 million a year. The government's former chief legal adviser 'advised' Blair that Britain should join Bush's imperialist war in Iraq in 2003...

The governments's effective nationalisation of the deposits in the stricken Northern Rock bank and guarantee of deposits up to £35,000 in all banks, have not ended the financial turmoil... By Judy Beishon

Northern Ireland: OVER 2,000 classroom assistants took part in a solid one-day strike across Northern Ireland on 26 September against a pay cut and attacks on working conditions... By Gary Mulcahy Socialist Party Belfast

For young people new to the ideas of socialism, Socialism 2007 will be an indispensable opportunity for you to gather new knowledge, new ideas and new hope that a socialist world is possible.... By Richie Clesham, Somerset Socialist Students

GOING TO the cinema is normally a pleasure but last Thursday was also a privilege as I attended and was asked to speak at the special preview of Ken Loach's new film, It's a free world... By Glenn Kelly, Unison national executive, (personal capacity)

Kirklees Council has performed its second u-turn in two weeks. Having planned to close three nurseries, it was forced to lift the axe hanging over Tiddlywinks... By Mike Forster Huddersfield Socialist Party

Demonstration against cuts in the NHS, 1 November 2006, photo Paul Mattsson

WHEN LABOUR ministers show themselves only to be concerned with glad-handing private-sector bosses and potential privatisers, it is clearly time for the trade unions to start organising against their plans to decimate our public services.

Once more workers in the public sector are finding themselves being forced to take action to hold back the rising tide of New Labour attacks... By Marc Glasscoe, branch secretary, Lincoln City Unison, personal capacity

Bolton: Bolton Council is attempting to cut holiday and sick pay for carers by removing the right to claim for 'sleep-ins', an essential part of many carers' duties and wages... By Robert Mitchell, Bolton Socialist Party

The latest meeting of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) steering committee took place on 29 September against a growing tide of trade union action, particularly in the public sector... By Kevin Parslow, assistant secretary NSSN, personal capacity

Socialism 2007, the annual weekend event hosted by the Socialist Party, is the ideal opportunity to witness and participate in key debates that deal with issues confronting every labour movement activist and Marxist.... By Paul Hunt, Coventry West Socialist Party

Bolton Council is attempting to cut holiday and sick pay for carers by removing the right to claim for 'sleep-ins' (overnight shifts in care homes – an essential part of many carers' duties and wages)... By Robert Mitchell

GORDON BROWN'S statement on Iraq, announcing a reduction of 1,000 serving British troops by Christmas (2,500 by spring 'depending on conditions'), will do little to appease anti-war campaigners and ordinary Iraqis.... By Simon Carter

AS PART of a day of protest in cities worldwide, thousands of Burmese students were among the marchers in London on 6 October, with red headbands and vociferous demands for an end to dictatorship in Burma... By Clare Doyle

A CONSORTIUM of the three teaching unions, the GMB and Unison recently held a successful public meeting against the conversion of seven of Birmingham's secondary schools into academies... By Clive Walder, Birmingham Socialist Party

AFTER THE usual sham of 'consultation', Devon and Somerset Fire Authority have decided to axe 25 jobs in the fire service in Devon, despite a budget surplus of £1 million.... By Jim Lowe, Devon Socialist Party

"They need to be exposed. This government doesn't care about the workers, they are only interested in money and power." These were the words of a striking... By Marc Glasscoe, Branch secretary, Lincoln City Unison (Personal capacity)

Russian revolution 90th anniversary: THE CAPITALIST media have made little comment on the 90th anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia. Peter Taaffe looks at the events of the October revolution in Russia 1917.

SWANSEA TRADES Council and Swansea Unison Health branch held a successful public protest meeting over the local Trust's decision to close 86 beds and get rid of 750 health workers, almost half of them nursing staff.... By Alec Thraves Swansea Trades Union Council and Socialist Party

Postman Pat joins the CWU picket line in East London, photo Naomi Byron

While negotiations between Royal Mail management and the Communication Workers Union were still on-going, a London postal worker who was involved in unofficial strike action spoke to the socialist about the dispute....

Editorial: On Friday 12 October a deal between the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) leaders and Royal Mail was struck against a background of unofficial action in Scotland, Liverpool and East London...

Postal workers in East London demonstrated their determination to fight to the finish in defence of their hard-won terms and conditions by taking unofficial action against unilateral imposition of new shift patterns... By Keith Pattenden

National Shop Stewards Network: : "I work in the Pensions Department but I'll never receive one when I'm older" and "Treat us like the rest, temps have feelings too... By Tracy Edwards PCS national young members organiser, personal capacity

Young trade unionists fight back: Debbie at Church Hill mail sorting office spoke to the socialist during the last Royal Mail strike about being a young member of the Communication Workers Union (CWU)....

THE POLISH government has imploded. The ruling Law and Justice Party has decided to end the long drawn out demise of its coalition. Elections are scheduled... By Karl Debbaut, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI)

HEALTH SERVICE workers and users in Kent were shocked at news that hundreds of deaths over three years have been blamed on epidemics of illness caused by the bacterium clostridium difficile in hospitals in Maidstone, Pembury ... By Nigel Sheahan and Julian Wilson, Tunbridge Wells and Hastings Socialist Party

Forty years after the 1967 Abortion Act: This month marks the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act. The reform was won by women who, increasingly confident as they became active in the workplace,...

Trade Union Rights and Freedoms Bill: THE DAY before John McDonnell MP's "watered-down" trade union freedom bill got its reading in Parliament, hundreds of trade unionists from across Britain came to lobby their MPs... By Andrew Walton, Unison shop steward, personal capacity

"REMEMBER THIS date: October 18, 2007. On this day, Nicolas Sarkozy's five year term will really begin", the conservative newspaper Le Figaro wrote... By Karl Debbaut, Committee for a Workers' International (CWI)

Northern Ireland: A BATTLE is being fought between classroom assistants who support teachers in many Northern Ireland schools and their employers, the Education and Library Boards... By Padraig Mulholland, NIPSA branch 517

Keynsham: Workers at the Cadbury-Schweppes factory in Keynsham near Bristol have been left stunned by the appalling news that the entire plant will close by 2010 with the loss of 500 jobs... By Robin Clapp

Postman Pat joins the CWU picket line in East London, photo Naomi Byron

Postal workers up and down the country have taken part in a courageous fight against a vicious management intent on destroying jobs and postal workers' conditions while preparing the industry for privatisation ... By Gary Clark , Sub area rep, Scotland No.2 CWU

Comment: Having been born (1958) and brought up in one of the most cosmopolitan areas of Britain, Crumpsall/Cheetham in Manchester, I have known from an early age never to judge a person by the colour of their skin, religion, spelling... By Colin Trousdale

The health service is being attacked in a piecemeal way - one hospital forced to close wards here, community services cut there - but these attacks are part of the government's national policies, which need to be challenged ...

comment: Having been born (1958) and brought up in one of the most cosmopolitan areas of Britain, Crumpsall/Cheetham in Manchester, I have known from an early age never to judge a person by the colour of their skin, religion, spelling... By Colin Trousdale, Manchester trade unionist

AS PART of the ongoing international campaign to free the detained student leaders from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) and Education Rights Campaign (ERC) organised a protes... By a correspondent in Nigeria

THE RESULTS of the recent general election in Switzerland reflect a highly polarised society, with the far-right Swiss People's Party (SVP) securing a 29% vote and 62 seats in the 200 seat assembly and the left-leaning Green... By Simon Carter

Over 70 trade unionists and activists gathered in London on 21 October to further build upon the recent successful national launch of the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN)... By Annoesjka Valent, steering committee NSSN

Since the beginning of October care workers in Bolton have been involved in industrial action to defend terms and conditions of employment which had supposedly been agreed on a national level.... By Robert Mitchell

The PUSH NHS demonstration in 2006 called for a national demonstration, photo Sarah Sachs-Eldridge

A dizzying array of cuts and privatisation, in the name of modernisation and reform, has been thrust upon the NHS since New Labour came to power in 1997... By Dr Jackie Grunsell, Save Huddersfield NHS councillor